Improve the Sequel: Escape From L.A.

[Emperor Norton I]

Escape From New York was a major cult film. Carpenter considered a sequel almost immediately, but put it off for some time until making Escape From L.A. Unfortunately, the sequel was a rather weak film, more or less remaking Escape From New York almost beat for beat, shot for shot. It's more cartoonish than Escape From New York, and it's less biting satire and more parody of a segment of culture. The film has interesting ideas, but fails to execute them.

The failure of the film had the effect of killing the franchise. A third film, Escape From Earth, was planned but lingers in development hell and is unlikely to exist. A television adaptation was also planned but never came into being.

The challenge here is to improve the film.

 

[omnimercurial]

Maybe if Quervo Jones had lived up to his Utopian Spiel rather than being an Opportunistic Predatory Psycho?

The stuff that Girl Snake rescued from the Surgeons said about LA being free vs the Mainland maybe could have been explored further instead of a throwaway line before bing shot.

Bruce Campbell is great but his role was so minor in the film it felt wasted having him there.

It is kind of sad but the Machete series of Films is in the same theme of Escape from LA eg super cheesy.

 

[Mr_ Bondoc]

If they were going to go fully crazy, consider the ideas to make it worth it:

* Consider that this was the era which saw the rise of right-wing militias and was just a year after the Oklahoma City bombing. To make matters worse people were told that terrorists would strike from across the Mexican border. As a result you had Minutemen on the border.

* Sheriff Arpaio in Phoenix, AZ; and Chief Darryl Gates in Los Angeles, CA were openly touting the idea that police brutality as a "necessary tactic".

Imagine like in the Clint Eastwood film Magnum Force, the National Police Force is organizing death squads called "New Patriots" along the Mexican border after reports of terrorist attacks on Phoenix, Dallas, Houston, Albuquerque, and finally Los Angeles, with a plan to cause mass insurrection and terror by releasing every prisoner on the island prison. Their message being channeled by a Rush Limbaugh-analogue who spouts messages and spliced video over the Internet,....

Much like the Machete films, we learn the commander of the "New Patriots" is using the threat of terrorism to swing the election, with his soldiers actively speaking with pollsters as to what the most effective places to strike would be.

To make matters worse, various gangs are being recruited by the "New Patriots" to play the patsies for the the terrorist action, with the promise of pardons

To tie in a possible future franchise, we learn that Cuervo Jones is actually a former soldier who served with Plissken in Moscow, who is now working for the United Nations Peacekeeping Forces. This would explain why Plissken was drafted for the mission, but also why Plissken won't kill Jones upon seeing him...

 

[TimPhillips]

The film should have been called Escape To LA...with Plissken on the run through a US reduced to religious fascism....headed to the last oasis of real freedom....the LA Maximum Security Prison. Snake has been black-mailed to escort the President's daughter who has stolen the controller to the orbital arsenal. With that, the prisoners can hold the government at arm's-length while plotting their next move Escape From Earth.
Tim

Escape From New York was a major cult film. Carpenter considered a sequel almost immediately, but put it off for some time until making Escape From L.A. Unfortunately, the sequel was a rather weak film, more or less remaking Escape From New York almost beat for beat, shot for shot. It's more cartoonish than Escape From New York, and it's less biting satire and more parody of a segment of culture. The film has interesting ideas, but fails to execute them.

The failure of the film had the effect of killing the franchise. A third film, Escape From Earth, was planned but lingers in development hell and is unlikely to exist. A television adaptation was also planned but never came into being.

The challenge here is to improve the film.